The Best American Sports Writing Of The Century: Classic Journalism from Baseball, Boxing, Horseracing, Golf, and Tennis

by David Halberstam (Editor), Glenn Stout (Series Editor)

The Barnes & Noble Review: "The front page chronicles man's defeats. The sports page chronicles man's triumphs." So the adage goes, never more true than when surveying 100 years of American history through its coverage of sports. From Bobby Knight to Bobby Fischer, from Secretariat to Sugar Ray, from Butkus to the Babe, the 20th century abounds with classic figures in sports history. Their compelling stories fuel our collective memory. In the pieces assembled here, The Best American Sports Writing of the Century captures these indelible moments in words worth a thousand pictures. Working with series editor Glenn Stout (Best American Sports Writing 1999 etc.), Pulitzer-Prize winner David Halberstam (The Summer of '49, Playing For Keeps:Michael Jordan & the World He Made) selects the century's most engaging sports journalism. While the task was surely a challenge, the result is a near-seamless retrospective of contemporary athleticism. The pieces are contemporaneous with the events recounted, infusing the entire collection with an intimate immediacy. You are there — with Joe DiMaggio, Junior Johnson, Muhammad Ali, Branch Rickey — again & again. The writing is uniformly excellent, mixing some familiar choices with otherwise overlooked gems. However, one criticism must be noted: This is for fans of men's endeavors, for women hardly appear in the 800-plus pages. No exquisite essays on Wilma Rudolph's struggles to achieve Olympic gold. No mention of Chris Evert's importance to tennis. No hymns of praise for Peggy Fleming's inspiring skating. Nohyperboleabout Shirley Muldowney's drag racing prowess. No Mary Decker, no Nancy Lopez, no Picabo Street. Perhaps a companion volume is in the offing. For capturing 10 decades of achievement by the men, tho, no tribute could be finer. Whether rejoicing on the quietude of fishing (Thomas McGuane, The Longest Silence, 1969) or the cacophony of Bobby Thomson's pennant-winning heroics (Red Smith, Miracle of Coogan's Bluff, 1951), the writing is evocative and timeless. Some athletic greats are viewed as their careers are poised to explode (Tiger Woods in 1997's The Chosen One, by Gary Smith). Others are glimpsed in the rearview mirror: DiMaggio in 1966's The Silent Season of a Hero, by Gay Talese; Ty Cobb in 1961's The Fight to Live, by Al Stump; & Billy Conigliaro in 1989's "A Brother's Keeper," by Mike Lupica.

In a marvelous choice, Halberstam concludes the book with six essays on Ali. The selections represent the full spectrum of his athletic and public career, from cocksure Cassius Marcellus Clay (Murray Kempton, "The Champ and the Chump," 1964) to reflective disciple of Islam (Dick Schaap, "Muhammad Ali Then and Now," 1971) to resurrected warrior in Manila (Mark Kram, "Lawdy, Lawdy, He's Great," 1975) & beyond.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Journalism, Anthologies

816 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 1994

About the author

David Halberstam was an American journalist and historian, known for his work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, and later, sports journalism. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 1964.

Halberstam graduated from Harvard University with a degree in journalism in 1955 and started his career writing for the Daily Times Leader in West Point, Mississippi. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, writing for The Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessee, he covered the beginnings of the American Civil Rights Movement.

In the mid 1960s, Halberstam covered the Vietnam War for The New York Times. While there, he gathered material for his book The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era. In 1963, he received a George Polk Award for his reporting at the New York Times. At the age of 30, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the war. He is interviewed in the 1968 documentary film on the Vietnam War entitled In the Year of the Pig.

Halberstam's most well known work is The Best and the Brightest. Halberstam focused on the paradox that those who shaped the U.S. war effort in Vietnam were some of the most intelligent, well-connected and self-confident men in America—"the best and the brightest"—and yet those same individuals were responsible for the failure of the United States Vientnam policy.

After publication of The Best and the Brightest in 1972, Halberstam plunged right into another book and in 1979 published The Powers That Be. The book provided profiles of men like William Paley of CBS, Henry Luce of Time magazine, Phil Graham of The Washington Post—and many others.

Later in his career, Halberstam turned to the subjects of sports, publishing The Breaks of the Game, an inside look at the Bill Walton and the 1978 Portland Trailblazers basketball team; an ambitious book on Michael Jordan in 1999 called Playing for Keeps; and on the pennant race battle between the Yankees and Red Sox called Summer of '49.

Halberstam published two books in the 1960s, three books in the 1970s, four books in the 1980s, and six books in the 1990s. He published four books in the 2000s and was on a pace to publish six or more books in that decade before his death.

David Halberstam was killed in a car crash on April 23, 2007 in Menlo Park, California.

Reviews

[Amar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It look longer than I expected to finish this book, but I’m glad I did. The writers in this collection do a great job of putting athletes on a page. As a reader, you feel like you know them as individuals even if you had never heard their story before. The collection also covers a wide range of characters making it interesting regardless of which sports you enjoy.

There are some stories that I found myself skipping through, but others are classics that have become part of the history of their respective sports. I recommend this book, but read it in spurts; it’s not one you can speed through.









Some way too in-depth notes I took while reading (spoilers):
Joe DiMaggio - mythical figure, tried his hardest to continue to fit the part

Junior Johnson - started bootlegging, cars became symbol of freedom in the south, and he became a hero along with them. Detroit auto industry found a renewable resource of courage: hard-charging southern drivers, used them to sell consumers on speed.

Bobby Fischer - story of him trying to avoid going to Iceland to play Spassky; didn’t know how much publicity the match got. Fischer was a nutcase / hermit that happened to be really good at chess

Boxing had a real community, norms; an art form with an auratic. Almost seemed that the narratives mattered more than the fights themselves
- pain was integral to boxing, no matter how you slice it. It may be a sport but it is a violent sport
- Pain is one of the most powerful and tangible forces in life

Ted Williams - hub fans, was unique character

Branch Rickey on his career
- idleness is the “worst thing in this world”
- Sports give kids competition, something to do, something to strive and work for
- Counteracts the “do as little as you can” creed
- Doesn’t want accolades for signing Jackie Robinson, but also doesn’t minimize the difficulty, strategy, and work it took to select him and have it be a success
- Whatever he did, he put his whole self into it. A shrewd, meticulous man
- Came up w many of the ideas we see in modern day baseball

Pete Reiser (pistol pete)
- Played through injury many times; broke his right arm and learned how to throw lefty
- Got hit in face, went to hospital, convinced doctors to let him out, manager let him suit up just to sit on bench, eventually pinch hits and hits a home run. Almost falls down on the trot because of dizziness
- This kept happening somehow. Sneaking out of hospitals and playing and ending up back in the hospital
- Enlisted in army, wasn’t fit to fight but they forced him to play baseball rather than discharge him
- Similar story continued, injuries. But Pete said he didn’t regret it; “it was my way of playing”

Red Grange
- popularized college football but wasn’t proud of it because he couldn’t explain how he did it; was more proud of his work in the insurance business
- Didn’t want to try out, the frat he was pledging made him
- “I don’t remember one thing I ever did on any run I ever made”
- Had a much more successful college career than pro career, but did bring much attention to pros when he played for the bears
- Prior to him ppl didn’t really care abt the pros, they didn’t even have a championship playoff at end of season

Ricardo Alonzo “Pancho” Gonzalez
- Overcame stereotypes of being Latino and growing up poor
- Was an isolated person, but not unfriendly. Was just eccentric and you had to get to know him and do things his way

Walter Hagen, the “haig”
- brought being a pro golfer status
- Did things his own way, was a partier but still sharp
- Peers voted him as better than Bobby Jones
- Type of golfer that would spray drive miss green and somehow still birdie, got in other players’ heads
- For this reason he loved match play
- Made so many putts and called so many shots that people believed god and the angels were on his side
- Make the hard ones look easy and the easy ones look hard. And make them all

Bill Hartack
- jockey, was a great racer but was combative w peers and press
- Only goal was winning, to hell with anyone and anything else
- Motivated by rough upbringing, mother died when he was young, father was coal miner

Ty Cobb
- Arrogant, insufferable to an unmatched point
- Writer was ghostwriting a book for him and saw why he was so insufferable and learned some redeeming qualities about him
- Father died when he was 18, always played hard for him. Didn’t want to let him down, knew he was watching
- Still, only three MLB players went to his funeral

Wimbledon McPhee
- ppl thought Laver was unbeatable until Roger Taylor upset him at Wimbledon

Butkus
- bears, esp under Halas, wanted to go out on Sundays and “kick a little ass”, winning was possible but not necessary
- Defense hit hard but offense was lacking
- He was a shy, reserved man but was elite at his job
- Didn’t get on teammates for missing assignments, didn’t feel it was his place
- Loyal to bears even though the team was mediocre
- Story ends w knee surgery and him not knowing whether he’ll be able to play

Sugar Ray Leonard lost to Duran their first fight, but adapted and beat him in rematch (with some showmanship) causing Duran to quit the fight early and retire

Bobby Knight
- Philosophy: Don’t focus on the rabbits, because then the elephants will get you
- Better at getting others to do this than follow his own advice
- Doesn’t like that others think he’s impulsive; “I always know what I’m doing”
- Knight was revered on the court but wasn’t always easy to get along with, and that was by choice; he could be when he wanted to be
- His loyalty and integrity were never questioned
- Lives and breathes the game, always wanted to be a coach
- Knight’s definition of discipline: doing what you have to do, and doing it as well as you possibly can, and doing it that way, all the time.

Billy Conn
- boxer, Pittsburgh through and through
- People fought in the street for fun
- Lost to Joe Louis for title twice, but those were the two biggest fights of their time (around WW2)

Reggie Jackson
- a character, always seemed to come through in clutch moments during his career
- Wanted to show that he was more than just baseball, knew about cars, stocks, business

Tony Conigliaro
- HR hitter for Red Sox before losing blood flow to brain
- Family takes care of him but he has lost much of his function. Family doesn’t want people to forget about him

Secretariat
- more than a horse, became a legend
- Horse was strong, fast, friendly, imposing, “beautiful”
- Broke records, did things no horse did before
- Author had emotional relationship w the horse because covered him from the very beginning of his career
- Had to be put down because of hoof disease after many years of retirement

Joe Kocur was Red Wings enforcer, passage talked abt ethics of fighting in hockey and the culture of toughness
- he didn’t fight dirty, but with sheer power did end up seriously hurting some people

Michalik was bodybuilder who took so many steroids / other drugs that wanted to die from the pain
- by a miracle he survived liver failure and eventually went on to preach against the serious negative effects of juicing

Tiger
- father saw him as the chosen one, mixing of races meant to unite the world
- Article pits Tiger against the machine of fame that grinds away light and youth
- Even if the machine wins, maybe the machine was changed in the process, breaking down another barrier

Krakauer into thin air
- Everest climbs had become commercial, guides became overconfident
- Everything went wrong on his climb and many died as a result

Tommy Harrison pretending to be Bob Satterfield

Norman Mailer, ego
- boxing is a conversation between two people, where they express their intelligence physically rather than mentally, through words
- Often boxers can’t express themselves through words, the same way many corporate people can’t express themselves through the body
- Covered Ali Frazier 1

Book closed with a few pieces on Ali

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these have aged poorly due to racism and the early 20th century writing doesn’t flow quite like the magazine explosion of the 60s thru the 90s, but some absolutely amazing writing in this. And the editorial decision to close with a batch of pieces on Ali was a smart one.

[Alex Hoeft · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me over six years to finish this book, but the last half of it, I finished in six days. What a marvelous collection of writing. Very much so last century, and it’s interesting to see the different prevalence of sports now versus then. Some of the writing is tinged with racism and sexism, which was mildly horrifying despite the time in which it was written. At the same time, I dog-eared many, many pages that had stand-out writing. Truly enjoyable.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admit that I'm a sucker for great sports writing and this collection has some of the best. The strength of the writing is matched by the brilliance and talent of the figures in the variety of sports that are highlighted. A really interesting and entertaining read.

[Len Knighton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Included in this book is the best sports magazine article I've ever read: Mark Kram's masterpiece on the THRILLA IN MANILA, Ali-Frazier III. That is worth the price of the book.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally awesome--the stories are from 1900 - 2000 and mostly cover baseball, boxing, and horse racing. There are a few basketball (Bobby Knight), chess (Bobby Fisher), and football (Dick Butkus and the Harvard-Yale game a long time ago). Nevertheless, the stories are really good. One thing I rediscovered, athletes are not generally good roll models, they are a******s. Actually Butkus was one of the good guys. It's great having this book around.

[Addison Braendel · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s impossible that there isn’t great stuff in this book. It’s enormous. There are terrific pieces. You won’t be unhappy. But how there isn’t a single entry from Bill Stern or George Will or George Plimpton I can’t understand. Maybe there is a reason. Or maybe this is a three star book that is 760 pages long and purports to have the best sports writing of the 20th Century, but doesn’t.

[Trey Meadows · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reminder of what journalism and sports used to mean to each other and of a time when they both were much more worthy of our attention. The last section of selections on Ali are especially poignant and reason enough to read this tome all by themselves.

[Austin Rider · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Steve Michalik one is insane. So much great stuff in here.

[Tyler Klass · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a sports fan, it really doesn’t get better than this! Thoroughly entertaining and informative throughout every essay/story.

[Noah Goodman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bangers only

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whenever you read a compilation if you are a promiscuous reader such as me you will find items you have read before. When you read a “ Greatest of the Century “ book then this will be even more likely.

David Halberstam, a great writer in his own right, edits this collection. He begins the collection with a set of four long form articles that he labels The Best of the Best.

If a person considers himself knowledgeable on the history of sports writing he can likely name at least some of these pieces. I, myself, got three off easily. Pieces on Joe DiMaggio, Junior Johnson, and Ted Williams by Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, and Richard Ben Cramer are milestones in journalism itself. The fourth piece considered among “ The Best “ was one I was not familiar with. By Brad Darrach “ The Day Bobby Blew It,” profiles Bobby Fischer in 1973.

Next some column and deadline writing is featured with samples from some of the legends including Mike Rothko, Dick Young, Grantland Rice, and, especially, the legendary Red Smith

The meat of the book is then hundreds more pages of famous or at least well regarded long form pieces. I will make note of the ones that really struck me.

Dick Schaap wrote “ Lone Wolf of Tennis” in Sport Magazine in 1958 about Pancho Gonzales. Detailing the prejudice he had fought thru ( even the hated Pancho nickname) to become one of, if not the best player of his times.

Ted Williams makes his second appearance ( his first chronologically) in John Updike’s New Yorker piece on his final game. “ Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu “ would have edged out the RBC Williams piece in the best section we’re I editing.

Hunter S. Thompson on The Kentucky Derby and Roger Angell on Steve Blass and his downfall are both tremendous pieces.

Frank Deford was the Bard of Sports Illustrateds final lengthy piece when I was growing up and “ The Rabbit Hunter” from 1982 about Bobby Knight makes clear why. The story told about both the good and bad Bobby and presaged all that would come to pass if he did not get control of himself.

David Remnick wrote about Reggie Jackson in the spring of 1987 as he pushed for one last season. My favorite or at least for me the most heart rendering story was Mike Lupuca’s which visited Tony Coligniaro in 1989. Tony C and what could have been was close to the end now. A stroke victim with 24 hour nurses living with his Mother and brother Billy in Massachusetts. So very sad, an athletic Job.

With the recent passing of Tommy Lasorda, Peter Richmond’s “ Tangled Up in Blue “ which visited Tommy’s relationship with his flamboyant gay son who died of AIDS, a fact Tommy struggled with and disputed.

The book finishes with several articles about the sportswriters favorite subject of the second half of the century. The one and only Muhammad Ali who it still feels like a shock to me when I realize he has died.

A great collection

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time casts a foggy hue on all people and events. Though primary sources may lack the perspective that only the passage of time can imbue, too much perspective can throw a shadow across the true meaning of events for the people that experienced them. If you want to understand what an event meant when it happened, you can't rely on what a distant, cloistered history tells you.

This collection is fantastic. Mostly focused on biography, it features many marvelous writers, sports writers, but writers too. I loved about 2/3rds of the articles. In order of appearance:
How Ted Williams is a jerk
Bobby Fischer's nightmarish trip to Iceland
Ty Cobb as an SOB and lunatic
A guy takes a his daughter to a boring Yale/Harvard football game
The story of Billy Conn, under appreciated WWII era boxer
The incredible Secretariat
An recently ironic story of the rise of Tiger Woods
A doomed Everest expedition
The hunt for a boxer named Bob Satterfield
And an entire section on Muhammad Ali

Everything in between was interesting too. I've heard said before, but hardly believed it - I was particularly taken by how ingrained in American life boxing was. Boxing, from the 30s to the 80s, was a BIG deal.

[Paul Schulzetenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know what you’re thinking: “Best American what? Good sports writing is an oxymoron.” Mostly, that’s true. Sports journalism is, by and large, awful, as anybody who has tried to watch Sportscenter for more than 30 minutes or leafed through The Sporting News can attest.

But The Best American Sports Writing of the Century is a ponderous tome. More than 1200 pages long, and most of it is good. Of course, much of it doesn’t feel like traditional sports writing, which is kind of the point. This is the best of the best, written by writers who have managed to beat the odds and provide compelling pieces.

There’s the usual caveats for a compilation of this sort. There’s so much here that by about page 400, you’re fatigued of reading short stories, and there are some stories that don’t merit inclusion. But there are other stories I never would have read that I now consider classics, such as the story of Junior Johnson in the early days of stock car racing, the Wimbledon snapshot of Tennis in the 1970s, and the sportfishing (yes, fishing) article on the thrill of the chase.

[Jason Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of short works by some of the best writers of the century, whether cut from the journalist's or novelist's cloth. Many of these pieces were jumping off points for long-form explorations of their subjects, Mailer's The Fight, Stump's excellent biography Cobb, Krakauer's Into the Wild, etc.

One glaring omission from this omnibus collection, made all the more obvious by the name of the author in question plastered across the cover, is the work of David Halberstam. Perhaps it was editorial modesty that prevented including his own work, but it proves detrimental to the task of completing anything called The Best American Sports Writing of the Century without including something from his superb collection of sports writing.

Sure is a heavy bastard though.

[Tom Gase · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is basically what it says it is - a collection of the best sports writing of the last century. A HUUUUUUUGE book that took me a long time to read but well worth it. Great stories by epic authors such as W.C. Heintz, Jim Murray, Frank Deford, Gay Talease, Hunter Thompson, Red Smith, Grantland Rice and many others on subjects such as the Pete Reiser of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Muhammad Ali, Joe DiMaggio, Steve Carlton, Secretariat, Red Grange, Ty Cobb and many many others. If you are a sports writer, this book is a must own, if only to inspire yourself to write great. The only problem I had with this book constructed by the late great David Halberstam, is there wasn't enough by Jim Murray in here and nothing by Rick Reilly in here. Anyways, a long book but a good one.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some decent writing here. But as I read, I was continually confronted by some questions:

Is there no mood that is possible in sports writing other than wistful nostalgia for days gone by?

Don't these writers get tired of producing hagiograpy?

Can nobody write about anyone other than Muhammad Ali?

Are all athletes the same person?

How on Earth could a collection called "The Best American Sports Writing of the Century" *not* include David Foster Wallace's "Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness" or "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley"? Seriously.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth it alone for the story on DiMaggio, and Hunter S. Thompson's "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent And Deparaved."

Edit: Still reading this bohemoth. Would also add the piece on Ty Cobb in the "worth it alone for..." category.

If you can appreciate the sort of dry prose of print media writing from the 40s through the 70s...you'll really enjoy this collection. Writing/reporting of this sort scarcely exists today.

[J.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic collection. Of the 60+ essays and articles in this collection, the only one I didn't read was the fly fishing one (Sorry to the guy who wrote the fly fishing piece). Lots of boxing and baseball but there are some other sports represented. Some of the biggest names in writing are represented as well. It's a book I wish didn't have a last page. It's a book I finished and immediately wanted to start reading again.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whether or not you are a sports fan, this anthology contains some of the finest examples of Twentieth Century journalism. Although many are seemingly about sports, when you peel the layers away, the consistent theme is the triumphs and defeats of the human spirit. The piece on Bobby Fischer is a marvelous example of the kind of journalism that seems to have been driven out by Fox News.

[Maya Senen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty broad look at good sports writing, which is what it promises. It goes without saying, "best" is subjective. Some stories are not as gripping as others, and this will depend on the reader. By contrast, I am now also reading a compilation of best baseball writing- this is obviously a more focused exploration, and because of my affinity for baseball is more often hitting the mark.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glorious, lives up to the title! Smashed my highest expectations with definitive pieces that put so much Internet journalism to shame. On my short list of books for a desert island or a new civilization. What can I say? The raw heart of victory and defeat, fate and chance, strength, sweat, brilliance, blood, and folly beats steady in these pages.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some amazing pieces on great athletes and sporting moments over the last 100 years. Some Enlightening (Ali, DiMaggio) Some Heartwarming (Secratariat) and even some Zany (Thompson on the Derby). Being a young man, I missed most of these great people/moments in history - but the tales live on and are captured through excellent writing. Highly recommend!

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant book, and whatever they left out, this was a well composed and complete edition. It had nice touches, like the ali section and the smart arrangement of the pirces throughout. Testifying to the sad fact that elite mental and emotional health aren't always bedfellows with elite sport, but also to the great drama and possibility of sport, it was a great collectikn, and a great read.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a must for every book shelf. The title is exact: these are the best sports stories and columns of the century. Award winning stuff here. A great book to pick up whenever you have fifteen minutes to spare and want to indulge terrific writing

[Clinton Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive volume focusing mostly on the sports I love the best, horse racing, baseball, and of course, boxing. It took me quite some time to get through it all but almost every story contained within reminded me what is best about sports and, as such, best about people.

[Erin Geismar · Rating 4 out of 5]

... and I don't even enjoy sports.

[James]

This is a pretty fun book so far. I've only read a couple of the essays so far, but the Joe DiMaggio one is great.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best single-volume collection of American sportswriting, with a mix of old and new, long and short, serious and playful pieces.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

an entire anthology of what i want to become.